How Foul Now Art Thou?

DUMP - A Pragmatic Four-Letter Word

Copyright: May 4, 2002
Tom Hyland

DUMP - a place where trash and garbage are deposited. A smelly place! That's pretty clear-cut and easy to understand right? "Look Mommy, there's a big DUMP truck!" Simple enough, a little boy excitedly identifying the genre of a large vehicle, one that usually STINKS to the High Heavens! "I don't like the looks of this place. Let's get out of this DUMP!" This one is a tad more complicated, in that one does not necessarily have to take it literally. It merely means that the speaker does not have a very high regard for the present surroundings. It could be a bar, cafe', or local "watering hole." It might refer to a low-class retail business establishment or store. It also could be someone else's abode, or place of living, as in a ghetto, or slum. Nevertheless, any one of these connotations could be summed up in two words - IT STINKS!

With just a little time spent on semantics, we can easily see that our chosen word for this empirical dissertation - DUMP - can be used in many ways. In the first instance, a noun identifying a specific place. The second example's use was as an adjective describing the "kind" of truck. Our third use was a noun also, but that which could be any general place.

Next, let's try its use as a verb, as in "just dump your stuff over there." As you can see, this is a really useful, pragmatic, or practical use, implying to "get rid of" or place any object or thing, in any manner, anywhere! In fact, the military loves this word, and uses it all over the world, for many reasons. Whenever
"they" want to create a temporary supply center or storage area anywhere "out in the field" such as: ammunition, food, or clothing, they call it a DUMP!

Then we have an entirely different meaning associated with our chosen word, which comes from our British friends across the "Great Pond." DUMP, as in stump, is also a noun, but refers to any small shapeless lump or chunk, as of lead, or even coal. How's that, for a bit of trivia, which will invariably "line your pockets with silver?"

Another noun use is as an archaic reference to a SAD tune or song. You know, something like the melancholy strains of words like "Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song," which was a big hit for B. J. Thomas. Bet he didn't even know his Winner was really a - DUMP!

By inference it is thus easily understood whence came the term "down in the DUMPS." Again, the usage is as a noun, but the object of a preposition, and tells us that someone is in low spirits, or in a depressed condition. Heck, why do you think they call it "The Blues?" How many hundreds, perhaps even thousands of songs have been: written, performed, audio taped,
videotaped, listened to on radio, viewed on television - that were Blues, or Jazz, or Country Westerns, or gee - maybe even opera, that were sad songs - ergo - DUMPS!

Can we just savor this theme for just a moment? "Your Cheatin' Heart" by Hank Williams = DUMP! "Blueberry Hill" by "Fats" Antoine Domino = DUMP! "You Butterfly" by Jimmy Rogers = DUMP! "Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley = DUMP! We could go on forever here, listing some REALLY BIG HITS, as Ed Sullivan might have announced - but for lack of time, space, and ink - let us close with the beautiful, sad, melancholy tune by Patsy Cline, which is performed over and over, and over, in every bar across this Nation, probably on a daily basis - "CRAZY!" Yep, you guessed it, it's a DUMP also!

AHA! As Will Shakespeare so aptly put it: ". . . there lies the rub!" This author who wastes my valuable time writing about such trash, or rubbish, or dumb DUMP stuff must be: NUTS - INSANE - CRACKERS - in short, CRAZY!

Well, dear faithful, avid readers, "you ain't seen nothin' yet!" ‘Cause I shall close now with my personal all-time favorite use of the word - DUMP - as in "I have to take a DUMP!" WOW!
How crude, rude, with an attitude, can one simple-minded person be? One can almost smell the STENCH when such a statement is made! One might even reply, "Gee, thanks for sharing - get out of here and go do your business!" AH! Business, another wonderful word!

So, as the sun slowly sets somewhere out in the West, it is quite evident that at least two things STINK - a DUMP (in any shape or form, unless it happens to be a sad tune) and THIS ARTICLE! Should anyone wish to comment, or be able to reach me, so the authorities could have me committed, please write to: poesyco.bigfoot.com ----- BUT remember, if I don't like it, I can delete it, or rather DUMP it into my little Recycle Bin also!


Footnote:
Remember the first few notes
of the Dragnet Theme?
DUMP-DE-DUMP-DUMP -DUM!

Then, there was that Children's Classic:
Humpty-DUMPty!


Happy DUMPING!


Copyright: May 4, 2002
Tom Hyland